Publisher Preview: Hippo Park (Fall 2026)

As ever, I’m just so consistently intrigued by what small publishers get up to in an era of big honkin’ conglomerates. Not that Hippo Park isn’t itself an imprint of the larger Astra Publishing House, of course, but today Jill Davis took the time to show me only four books coming out this fall season. Each one is a picture book or graphic novel. Each one utterly unique. Let’s start!

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The Very Unusual Pumpkin by Marilyn Singer, illustrated by Maya Shleifer

Publication Date: September 15, 2026

ISBN: 978-166264-101-5

I think you may have heard the objections often voiced by the current crop of grandmothers about how they get portrayed in picture books. Often grandparents are seen as ancient and doddering, so a slew of books with peppy grandpas and grandmas have come out in recent years to combat the stereotype. But, see, author Marilyn Singer had a vastly different take on how grandparental units are portrayed. Time and time, grandparents in books for kids are seen as completely perfect. Without flaw. An idealized alternative to a child’s parents. And, as I am sure you know, idealization contains its own dangers. That’s why Singer decided to do the brave thing and write a picture book where the grandmother on the page is bad at something. That something? Telling stories.

At first glance you might think that this is a companion title to Grace Lin’s The Ugly Vegetables, and while that’s not entirely accurate, it’s also not the worst idea in the world. However, at its heart this is a book about telling better stories. In it, a young girl is disappointed that her grandmother tells fairly dull tales. One night, she decides to take matters into her own hands. Think Interrupting Chicken, but with drive and purpose. The art is by Maya Shleifer who is definitely an illustrator to watch (you may have seen her work when she illustrated Jane Yolen’s Too Many Golems). Under her guiding hand, everything in the fantasy world has a black background, and everything in the real world is set against white. When Grandma tells her story, her words are done with the illustrator’s hand lettering. But best of all? This is a book where any time someone is knitting, the knitting needle placement is excellent. Well done there!

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A Not-So-Scary Story by Barney Saltzberg

Publication Date: September 1, 2026

ISBN: 978-1-662664-085-8

Here’s a trend I’ve noticed quite a bit more in 2026 than I have in previous years: There has been a preponderance of Halloween-adjacent, but not necessarily about Halloween itself, picture books. Titles that could stay in the greater picture book collection without having to be relegated to the Holiday section. The last book we just looked at falls into that category, and so does the latest from Saltzberg. With this title, Barney examines the concept that while some people like to be scared, others most certainly do not. This may be a new concept to kids. In this tale, a large rodent tells a littler one a scary story with mixed results. The book is meant to invoke that feeling you get when you’re sitting around a campfire and someone is telling a creepy tale. Barney, apparently, was VERY insistent that this book include that classic look of someone holding a flashlight underneath their face. There’s also a bit of social and emotional learning, as when the younger character finds ways to redirect the story when it gets too frightening. And the book also models conversations kids can have when they voice what they do and do not like in their fiction and literature.

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Dog Days by Claudia Boldt

Publication Date: August 25, 2026

ISBN: 978-166264-140-4 (pbk)

ISBN: 978-16626-4105-3 (hc)

Anyone else getting that Florence and the Machine song caught in your head right now? So this next book is an interesting case. It’s a precocious friendship story aimed at the 9-12 year old set. It looks young, so consider this a kind of a transitional book for kids. You know how people have been talking lately online about kids wanting more crushes and mild romance in their books? This actually fulfills that very need. Its two characters have, not quite an antagonistic relationship, but something akin to that. One is adopted and one has a dead mom. The first half of the book is about what happens when your best friend gets a crush on someone and you may as well not exist. So you can see that while it looks young, it discusses stuff kids talk about in middle school and lets the reader feel older. Consider this ideal for the Sara Varon/ Robot Dreams fandom.

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Bill the Dog by Chris Britt

Publication Date: November 10, 2026

ISBN: 978-1-6626-4067-4 

This one has a kind of classic newspaper comic feel to it. Little wonder, since Britt started his career as an editorial cartoonist. Now he’s transitioned to picture books, and in his latest title we see what happens when you take criticism a little too close to heart. In this story two dogs cause chaos in a home, but only one of those dogs has the wherewithal to clean itself up. That means all the blame falls on our hero here. When he’s called a “bad dog” he thinks it means that he isn’t fulfilling the job as a dog itself. But what other options are there for him? “What else could a bad dog be?” Determined to try to be something else, the storyline follows the rule of threes. First, Bill tries to be a bird. Then he tries to be a cat. Then, third and most logically, he tries to be an alligator. I don’t want to spoil anything for you, but in time he realizes he’s a dog, and not a bad one either.

And that’s all she wrote! Special thanks to Jill Davis for showing me these upcoming wares!

Filed under: Publisher Previews